North Carolina abortions fell sharply after 12-week ban
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The number of abortions performed in North Carolina fell 31% the month after the state implemented a 12-week ban and required in-person counseling before the procedure, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
Why it matters: The ban, which took effect July 1, changed the landscape in one of the South's last havens for women seeking abortions.
What they found: There were 4,230 abortions provided in North Carolina's health care system in June and 2,920 in July — a decline of more than 30%, compared with a 7% decline nationally, according to Guttmacher, which supports abortion rights.
- Requiring in-person visits before the procedure may be having a wider effect than the 12-week ban itself, by forcing some patients to take time off from work and pay for travel and child care.
Guttmacher found no corresponding increases in abortions provided in neighboring states like South Carolina and Virginia that would offset North Carolina's decline.
- That means individuals who would have sought an elective procedure in North Carolina may have instead obtained abortion pills by mail or remained pregnant.
Catch up quick: North Carolina's Republican-controlled legislature in May narrowly overrode Gov. Roy Cooper's veto of a bill that lowered the state's limit for most abortions from 20 weeks to 12 weeks and requires patients to have in-person counseling at least 72 hours before the procedure.
- The new law, which includes exceptions for rape and incest and certain fetal anomalies, remains one of the least restrictive in the South.
- But Democrats led by Cooper argue the counseling requirement weighs heavily on poor people and those traveling from other states.
What we're watching: A six-week ban that South Carolina implemented in August could further alter abortion care in the South.
- Abortion access also is looming over this fall's state legislature elections in Virginia, the last southern state that hasn't banned or restricted abortion since the Supreme Court struck down federal protection of the procedure.
